Unbelievable Online Shopping Facts from 2015

It’s been one impressive year for ecommerce, earmarked by new records, healthy growth and measurable accolades. And as we look back, there are some factoids that really stand out from the rest. Join us as we wrap up yet another successful four quarters in one of the fastest growing industries in the world with a look back at some online shopping facts from 2015 that literally shaped this industry.

According to comScore’s quarterly State Of Retail report, over 198 million Americans made at least one purchase online in 2015. To put this into better perspective, that’s approximately 78% of the entire U.S. population that bought at least one item from an online store.

While the tit for tat has always been that of the stereotype that women spend more money than men, namely because studies have shown that women control as much as 80% of all spending in U.S. households, such is not the case with ecommerce. When it comes to online shopping, the numbers are pretty much split right down the middle, according to Business Intelligence.

You also might think this next entry into our online shopping facts from 2015 is a bit eschewed, but it’s not. According to See Why, 22% of men shopped from mobile devices as compared to just 18% of women in 2015. There’s two gender spending stigmas we can put to rest.

The millennial generation (persons between the ages of 18-34) spent the most online. According to a Business Insider report, this age group spent an average of $2,000 online in 2015, even though their income bracket was lower – thus their earning power was less – than other generations.

People who dropped the most loot at online stores in 2015 happened to come from more affluent households (no surprise there). According to a survey compiling online shopping facts that was conducted by Experian, 55% of heavy ecommerce spenders came from households earning $75,000 or more per year.

Ecommerce is healthy for a reason: because Americans like to shop online. Year end totals place the final tally at a number that’s inching just above the $300 billion marker, making it the most successful ecommerce season in the history of the internet. In 2015, the U.S. ecommerce market grew by 17%, and projected annual sales are expected to exceed $400 billion by 2017, according to Media Bistro.

According to online think tank KissMetrics, organic search from search engines like Google and Yahoo fueled a majority of ecommerce sales in 2015.

• 61% of web users conducted a search to find the products they wanted to buy online.
• Over 44% of all online shoppers began their spree by starting at a search engine.
• Over 130 billion searches were conducted monthly online.
• Google generated over 30% of all search engine traffic.

As for online shopping statistics that have to do with social media influence, Facebook was, indeed, still the king of the hill.

• Facebook drove over 60% of ecommerce traffic, as compared to rival social giants Polyvore (20%) and Pinterest (15%).
• Over half of all social shoppers made a purchase within a week of being exposed or influenced to a product of interest on a social channel.
• 71% saw brands more favorable after reading a response to a customer review (either a negative or positive review).

It’s no mystery that mobile devices are becoming faster, thinner, lighter and more powerful. As the technology has evolved, ecommerce has met newer demands by mobile savvy shoppers.

• According to Mobify, over 25% of Cyber Monday and Black Friday shopping was conducted via mobile device.
• Over 55% of all mobile users in 2015 redeemed digital coupons that they found for ecommerce, with 70% using their mobile device to redeem the coupon.
• Mobile shoppers said they would abandon a cart if the page didn’t load in three seconds.
• Across the board, shoppers wanted a seamless desktop-to-mobile shopping experience in 2015.

Ecommerce has the lowest conversion ratio in the retail industry, averaging a meager 3% overall, and hovering more at the 2% point, according to various 2015 online shopping fact reports. Key reasons for abandonment included: poor shopping cart design, no guest checkout offered, shipping prices too high, returns policy not lenient, and prices being offered non-competitive.

Among the most pertinent of all online shopping facts for 2015 was the fact that Black Friday and Cyber Monday – the two most celebrated shopping days of the year that have become cemented as retailing holidays in the U.S. – set new records. Various reports showed that shoppers spent, collectively, over $2 billion from the weekend of November 28th through December 1st, 2015.

The major shipping carriers were up-to-their-knees busy this year, in the busiest holiday shopping season ever. The final reporting showed the real numbers, and these numbers revealed that over 1 billion packages were delivered. UPS delivered over 500 million; USPS delivered over 450 million; and FedEx delivered over 290 million.

Webrooming and showrooming were two of the biggest online shopping trends from 2015. An Accenture report found that 65% of shoppers researched products online before making a local purchase, a process coined as webrooming because it is similar to conventional window browsing. The primary reasons were that shoppers wanted to see and touch the product before buying it (46%), or they wanted to avoid the cost of shipping (47%). By comparison, 63% of shoppers were showrooming in 2015 – where they researched a product locally only to later purchase that product online.

Online stores still continued to struggle with returns in 2015, with expert reports showing that over 30% of all products being ordered online would ultimately be returned by consumers. In another study, 81% of shoppers polled stated that the returns policy being offered by an online store would influence their buying decision, and, further, that they wanted returns to be hassle-free and convenient.

One of the most important online shopping facts from 2015 was the correlation between shipping prices and shopping cart abandonment rates. One study found that 65% of shoppers would abandon their shopping cart if the shipping prices were too high. Another related study found that 73% of shoppers wouldn’t make a purchase if the cost of shipping was too high. According to UPS, the cost of shipping was one of the most important and influencing factors in ecommerce sales this year.

U.S. shoppers were rather patient when they made online purchases in 2015. According to a report, the most popular delivery choice was the economy 10-day ground shipping option, with 78% of shoppers preferring it. 67% wanted the option to upgrade to expedited delivery, and 43% said that delivery time mattered (with eight days being the average delivery time for an ecommerce package in 2015).

All said and done, 2015 was another year for the record books for ecommerce. According to the most recent reports, holiday sales have increased by over 40% since 2008. Ecommerce accounts for about 11% of all retail sales annually, and has a compounded annual growth rate of 10%, too. 56% of people will make an online purchase this coming year, with the average consumer projected to spend about $1,738 online in 2016. Cheers to another record-setting year!